10 May 2010

WATCH: Socarides on Kagan: "Brilliant, Pragmatic, Progressive"

Richard Socarides, the gay attorney and former White House Special Assistant to President Bill, worked with Solicitor General Elena Kagan for four years. Socarides offered this assessment on CNN's American Morning.

"She's first and foremost a brilliant lawyer. A brilliant person. Someone who engages everyone she knows. She's a brilliant, pragmatic, progressive intent upon hearing all sides and fashioning a solution that works for the most amount of people."

Comments

“...seemingly principle-free careerist...”

That would make perfect sense, because, as far as I can tell, that is what Obama is.

Glenn Greenwald writes:

“The Right appoints people like John Roberts and Sam Alito, with long and clear records of what they believe because they’re eager to publicly defend their judicial philosophy and have the Court reflect their values. Beltway Democrats do the opposite: The last thing they want is to defend what progressives have always claimed is their worldview, either because [1] they fear the debate or because [2] they don’t really believe those things...”

No one in politics could possibly be so fearful of mere debate. Barbara Lee isn’t. Dennis Kucinich isn’t. Alan Grayson isn’t. Ron Dellums wasn’t. In general, people with principles aren’t. The correct answer just has to be Number 2.

If it turns out that Kagan is in favor of gay rights, well that’s nice. But I’m interested in that and a whole lot more.

We can only hope, pathetically, that Kagan is a stealth candidate, as so many thought Obama might be. The chances of that are about zero, but what else do we have?